Disposable is a throaway term past its use-by date

Since the 1940s ''disposable'' has been used to describe something meant to be discarded after use.

Such products have proliferated and in plastic form range from nappies, razors and cameras to utensils, cups and plates, not to mention packaging.

But ''disposable'' is losing its appeal as a marketing term, probably because many ''disposable'' plastics are made from fossil fuels and it's now widely understood they can take hundreds of years to decompose in landfill. Movements to ban disposable shopping bags are gathering pace.

The United Arab Emirates last year reportedly brought forward its ban on ''disposable'' plastic bags made from fossil fuels. Its environment ministry said plastic bags were responsible for up to 50 per cent of camel deaths there.

Disposable nappies are on the nose, too. Earlier this month parent groups in 17 countries, including one in Glebe, tried to break the world record for changing the most cloth nappies simultaneously. It was meant to be a reminder of how many disposable nappies go into landfill each year, estimated at more than 800 million in Australia.

Labels like recyclable, compostable, biodegradable encourage people to think about how something can be disposed of before they buy it. Labelling something ''disposable'' is close to an invitation to throw it away with no regard for the consequences. A more descriptive tag might be ''single use, extremely durable in landfill''.

Packaging websites said the UAE had ''preponed'' its disposable bag ban. Prepone is an adaptation from postpone to mean its opposite, with perfect logic, if dubious grammatical legitimacy. It's a living language. Goodbye ''disposable'', hello ''prepone'', and ''single use, extremely durable in landfill'', we need you.